a sliver of hope
by The-Despondent-Insomniac
Summary: in a world of darkness, they cling to each other in the hope that maybe there is a tiny sliver of hope still left to be found. **PAIRE**


Yet another paire oneshot from me....as always, i own nothing. This is set in the future where Nathan is president and those with abilities are hunted. The song used is "all over me" by Lindsay Harper, or by AURAH on itunes from the movie loving Annabelle.

Claire stood on stage in the darkened club, one spotlight partially illuminating her face as she sang huskily down the microphone. Peter sat at the bar silently watching her, a solemn expression as always painted on his face. Across the room their eyes sought the others as she began the next song. Like all her others this one was filled with raw emotion and meaning. A secret message for her secret lover. Because even in a world as torn apart and fucked up as theirs what they were was still considered wrong.

**In the space between what's wrong and right,  
You will find me waiting for you.**

They had never truly been meant to find each other, they were uncle and niece and what they had was wrong. Basely, fundamentally wrong. And yet to them it was oh-so right. They may not have been meant to find each other in the way that they did. But they had, and they had both been consumed by the fire that had danced between them from the very first moment. And now, in a world where nothing was truly right or wrong, where the lines had long since been blurred; they were all that held the other together.**  
All your fortresses go down in the night.  
To the dawn I'll see you through.**

On the nights he came crawling back into whatever dingy hole-in-the-wall place they had found to camp out in that night; torn up both internally and externally she was the one who would put him back together again. She would slowly break down the steel barriers around his heart that every new mission caused to harden and when he finally fell into an exhausted restless sleep just before dawn she would stay up and watch over him, calming his fears while he tossed and turned.****

'Cause I know, that you know,  
you're all over me now.  
And it's clear, it will show,  
your curtains will close...

She knew that they could never survive without each other; it had been that way since the beginning. She would never have survived Sylar if it wasn't for him, just as he would never have survived the subsequent fall from a building or glass shard to the head if it wasn't for her. And as he pushed her up against a wall and fused their lips together while her small hands clung to him and her legs wrapped tightly around his waist she knew that he knew that even while he was swearing this was the last time and telekinetically pulling the curtains closed he would be back again. He never could survive without her for too long after all.

**But if your heart is cold, my sheets are warm.  
I will shelter you through the storm.  
I will shelter you all through the storm  
**

The moral conscience she had long since shed about their relationship still plagued him from time to time and he would try to walk away. But like tonight, he would always end up at the club, and later back in her arms. The wind was howling down the streets outside, and she was on stage singing to him. She knew he couldn't live without her. Not while they both still existed in such a messed up place. Without her, his heart would turn to stone and eventually crack, just as hers would. If they gave each other up now, they would both end up dead or on opposite sides of the fence. It was only each other and the warmth of the other in the night that saved them both from destruction. At least for a little while.**  
**

**The answers aren't so easy to find,  
The questions will have to do.  
'Cause I've lost myself deep in your eyes,  
My only fix is you.**

He never did understand she thought as she watched him from her place on the stage. He had that same slightly defeated look in his eyes as he always did every time he came back to her. He would leave, seeking answers on a way to fix the world, to make everything better for everyone and never finding any. The only answers he could ever be sure of were the ones he got from her. She had learned long ago that sometimes the questions would have to do for the time being and the answers would come in time if they were meant to be found, but he was still a little bit of a dreamer and she envied him for that, she had become jaded years ago. She let him go on dreaming of the perfect world though, because it kept a little light in his eyes and it kept him at her side. ****

'Cause I know, that you know,  
You're all over me now.  
And it's clear, it will show,  
Your curtains will close.  
But if your heart is cold, my sheets are warm.  
I will shelter you through the storm.  
I will shelter you all through the storm.

Say what I am, what we are,  
It's a start towards the truth.  


He never had been able to acknowledge just who and what they were he thought. He had never been comfortable in his own skin. Watching Claire from his place at the bar, singing in her casual husky voice so at ease in her surroundings - in who she was he decided that needed to change. It was time to face the truth, to face reality. They had always been peter and Claire, the hero and the cheerleader...

He had never been able to finish the introduction:

They were mutants, a new generation of human,

they were uncle and niece,

They were related.

They were screwed up,

they were unnatural even in a messed up world, and despite how unorthodox it may be;

They were in love.

He had always fled, whenever their lives came too close to catching up with them, they went their separate ways for weeks if anyone came too close to finding them out but tonight he was done running, Claire held him together, she helped him stay human when he was teetering on the edge and longing to give into his power and wipe the world clean of all the unworthy people in it- like Nathan whose fault it was the world had gotten to such a dark cruel stage.

He knew he held her together as well, for all the bravado she displayed now, with her darkened hair and the solemn expression on her face that matched his; inside he knew there was still a part of her that longed to be able to go back to the days of teddy's-on-her-bed and cheerleading practice, to days before powers and darkness and danger. it was for those deep buried dreams of hers that he kept looking for the answers to a better world- so that on the nights when _she _let _her_ guard down and cried in his arms and he picked up the pieces and soothed her nightmares he would be able to promise her a brighter tomorrow.**  
**

**Taking my breath with each delicate step **

**In my heart it's you.**

As Claire finished her song and delicately stepped off the stage his breath caught slightly, and as her eyes once again sought his; decision made he rose from his seat to meet her, a new determined and happier light burning in his eyes. He may not be able to offer a brighter future and he may not be able to offer security but he could offer himself- His whole self and if she would accept him then tomorrow would be slightly brighter anyway because she would be in it. They would be in it together.**  
In the space between what's wrong and right,  
You will find me waiting for you…**

They met in the middle of the room in a passion filled kiss, filled with finality and love and home and just the slightest hint of hope. He didn't care anymore that anyone could see them, in this world there was no right and wrong anymore, just a rather large space in between- a shady, indistinct line that had long since been blurred. When they pulled away to be greeted by the sight of the others eyes they could both see traces of the dreams that had long been buried; he could see the pink and blonde and radiant smiles of her past and she could see the outline of that almost forgotten crooked grin, the caring and love for all and the innocence. There was hope, distant and faint, but it was there.

And when their fingers locked together and they smiled at each other, true back-before-the-world-became-dark smiles the hope shone that little bit brighter and they knew that eventually light would shine again and the darkness they were forever forced to hide in would recede, leaving them free to dream once again.


End file.
